Country Advice Zimbabwe Zimbabwe – ZWE37450 – Mahungwe ethnic group – Botswana – Mozambique – South Africa – Asylum seekers 1 October 2010 1. Please provide brief background information on the Mahungwe ethnic group. Sources indicate that the Mahungwe is one of many subgroups comprising Zimbabwe‟s majority Shona ethnic group. The World Directory of Minorities states that the Shona-speaking people who form about 77 per cent of the population in Zimbabwe were not a group consciously sharing a cultural or a political identity until the past hundred years. Shona identity was largely the creation of colonial missionaries and administrators who “set about categorizing Shona into clusters or sub-tribes on the basis of largely spurious inferences”. One of the largest blocs in the emergent sub-groupings and hierarchies are the Manyika.1 Other English language sources refer to the Manyika as the Manhica or Manyica. “Mahungwe” is referred to as a Manyika dialect in a scholarly article from 1994,2 and another authoritative text notes that one of the two primary Manhica dialects is “Maungwe (Hungwe), spoken in the Makoni kingdom”.3 This categorisation suggests that speakers of Mahungwe (or Maungwe or Hungwe) form a somewhat distinct cultural entity within the Manhica subgroup. However, the only direct reference found to the Mahungwe ethnic group names it as parallel to the Manyika, rather than a subgroup of it: a scholarly article in the Journal of African History makes passing reference to the Mahungwe as one of several subgroups of the Maswina, stating that “the „Maswina‟ are divided into smaller sections such as the Karanga, Mazezuru, Mahungwe, Manyika, Korekore, and so on”.4 “Maswina” is an alternative, and possibly largely obsolete, term for the Mashona or Shona.5 1 „Zimbabwe‟ in World Directory of Minorities 1997, (ed.) Minority Rights Group, pp. 529-30 – Attachment 1. 2 Lafo, M. 1994, „Shona Class 5 Revisited: A Case Against *Ri- as Class 5 Nominal Prefix‟ in Zambezia, vol. XXI (i), at p.58 http://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/docs/00/44/88/36/PDF/shona_cl5.pdf – Accessed 28 September 2010 – Attachment 2. 3 Olson, J. S. 1996, The Peoples of Africa: An Ethnohistorical Dictionary, pp. 368-9 – Attachment 3. 4 Msindo, E. 2007, „Ethnicity and Nationalism in Urban Colonial Zimbabwe: Bulawayo, 1950 to 1963‟, Journal of African History, vol.48, p. 279 http://eprints.ru.ac.za/1025/1/Ethnicity.pdf – Accessed 28 September 2010 – Attachment 4. 5 Reference is made to “[t]he people called „Mashona‟ or „Maswina‟” in Werner, A. 1917, „The Language of Southern Rhodesia‟, Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies, University of London, vol.1, p.106 http://www.archive.org/stream/bulletinorient01univuoft#page/n119/mode/2up – Accessed 28 September 2010 – Attachment 5. Page 1 of 7 From these circuitous references, it would appear that speakers of the Mahungwe or Maungwe (Hungwe) dialect or dialects may constitute or significantly overlap with the Mahungwe ethnic group; however, this remains unclear. In Zimbabwe‟s government-owned newspaper, The Herald, references were found to the Muangwe tribe of the Rusape district,6 “the Maungwe people in the Makoni area of Manicaland”7 and “the Maungwe area now known as Makoni.”8 Searches located no further information on the cultural, social or political constructs of a Mahungwe ethnic group. 2. Deleted. 3. Deleted. 4. Deleted. 5. Please provide information on Zimbabwean nationals applying for asylum in South Africa, Botswana and Mozambique, including whether it is common for them to do so, and if not why not. Sources indicate that Botswana, Mozambique and South Africa have each received documented and undocumented arrivals from Zimbabwe in recent years, including asylum seekers. Each country is party to the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and the 1967 Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees and has a system for granting refugee status or asylum. Botswana Botswana, one of southern Africa‟s most prosperous nations, has undocumented foreign nationals unofficially estimated to number in the hundreds of thousands and, reportedly, most are from Zimbabwe. Those with a passport are allowed a maximum 90-day annual stay in Botswana and extensions can be granted on written requests.9 According to the World Refugee Survey, Botswana hosted approximately 20,000 Zimbabwean refugees and asylum seekers in 2008; there were no reports of refoulement, but figures from the International Organization for Migration indicated that Botswana had deported an average of 4,000 Zimbabweans a month during the first half of 2008.10 The US Department of State, reporting on human rights practices in 2009, observed that Botswana‟s system for granting refugee status or asylum is “accessible but slow”. Newly arrived refugees and asylum seekers, primarily from Zimbabwe, were held in the Center for 6 Mapimhidze, R. 2004, „Referral Centre for Abused Girls‟, The Herald, 6 March – Attachment 6. 7 „Chedonje School Comes Out Tops At Dance Fest‟ 2009, The Herald, 30 November – Attachment 7. 8 Murwira, Z. 2007, „Amicable Resolution Needed in Chieftainship Talks‟, The Herald, 22 August – Attachment 8. 9 Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN) 2010, „Botswana: Technology to catch undocumented migrants’, UNHCR Refworld website, 1 March http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/4b960e3ec.html – Accessed 28 September 2010 – Attachment 30. 10 United States Committee for Refugees and Immigrants 2009, World Refugee Survey 2009 – Botswana, 17 June http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/4a40d2a0c.html – Accessed 28 September 2010 – Attachment 31. Page 2 of 7 Illegal Immigrants until the governmental Refugee Advisory Committee made a status recommendation; fewer than 100 persons were granted refugee status in 2009.11 Those granted refugee status were transferred to the Dukwe Refugee Camp where almost 3000 lived in “generally adequate” conditions. Approximately 600 registered refugees were living and working outside Dukwe Camp at the beginning of 2009, on special residency permits for a one-year period with the possibility of renewal. However, in June 2009 the government decided to further restrict the ability of registered refugees to live and work outside the camp, with only exceptional cases such as those refugees enrolled in higher education or with “unique skills” being permitted to continue to reside outside the camp.12 Freedom House recently reported that illegal immigrants from Zimbabwe were facing increasing xenophobia and are subject to exploitation in the labor market. Freedom House observed that Botswana is building an electric fence along its border with Zimbabwe, “ostensibly to control foot-and-mouth disease among livestock, but the barrier is popularly supported as a means of halting illegal immigration”.13 Mozambique Zimbabwe is not one of the main source countries of asylum seekers in Mozambique, the majority originating from the Democratic Republic of Congo, followed by those from Burundi and Rwanda. Mozambique currently hosts 4,176 asylum seekers, most of whom live in Maratane refugee camp. Asylum seekers are free to move outside the camp after the eligibility interview if they are able to support themselves.14 In July 2010, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees observed that Mozambique had “shown some reluctance in accepting asylum requests of individuals of certain nationalities” including Zimbabweans. Access to asylum procedures for Zimbabweans continued to be limited, for the Mozambique government had taken the position that the situation in Zimbabwe did not produce a refugee flow. Over a hundred cases of Zimbabwean asylum- seekers who were interviewed by the agency responsible for the reception, registration, accommodation and assistance to asylum seekers and refugees in Mozambique in 2008-2009 were never submitted for a decision on refugee status, “thus leaving Zimbabwean asylum- seekers in a legal limbo”.15 The US Department of State advises that the Mozambique government provided only “modest assistance” to Zimbabwean citizens entering Mozambique, for it considered them economic 11 US Department of State 2010, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices 2009 – Botswana, March, Section 2d – Attachment 32. 12 US Department of State 2010, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices 2009 – Botswana, March, Section 2d – Attachment 32. 13 Freedom House 2010, Freedom in the World – Botswana (2010), June http://www.freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=22&year=2010&country=7787 – Accessed 28 September 2010 – Attachment 33. 14 UN High Commissioner for Refugees 2010, „Submission by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights‟ Compilation Report – Universal Periodic Review: Mozambique‟, July, pp. 1-3 http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/pdfid/4c3abd512.pdf – Accessed 23 September 2010 – Attachment 34. 15 UN High Commissioner for Refugees 2010, „Submission by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights‟ Compilation Report – Universal Periodic Review: Mozambique‟, July, p. 6 http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/pdfid/4c3abd512.pdf – Accessed 23 September 2010 – Attachment 34. Page 3 of 7 migrants. Movement within the country was limited for refugees who must request authorisation to move outside the region in which they have been registered or if they reside in the refugee camp and wish to leave the camp‟s boundaries.16 Discrimination by police against Zimbabwean immigrants was reported during 2009.17 South Africa Independent organisations